How commute & convenience make employees prefer WFH

If moving tens of thousands of employees into remote work overnight at the pandemic's outset was a challenge, bringing them back to office under a hybrid model suitable to both employers and employees at a time of record-high attrition levels is proving to be a bigger one. 

To be sure, many employees are glad to be back in office. At least there's a clear end to the day, reason some. Others are not ready to suffer the boredom and digital exhaustion of working from home anymore. 

But there are also many who don't want to return. Consider this: Naukri.com added a feature in July 2021 for recruiters to tag their job postings as 'Permanent Remote' or 'Temporary Work from Home During Covid'. 

According to the job portal's findings released in February 2021, over 93,000 permanent and temporary remote jobs were listed. Indian job seekers made over 3.2 million searches for permanent and temporary remote jobs. 

About 57 per cent were made for permanent remote jobs during the same time, with the highest search count of over 350,000 in December 2021 alone. 

But it's not just the fear of the virus holding people back anymore, going by the crowds at the malls, theatres and restaurants. 

Tech giant Google's Covid-19 Community Mobility Reports map community movement in India and other countries during the pandemic (February 17, 2020 to March 3, 2022) using data from users who have turned on their location history. 

From mid-June 2020 to mid-October 2021, the trend graph for community movement in India to retail and recreation spots dipped the lowest from the baseline, while the movement to workplaces stayed well above it, meaning that people went out more to workplaces than to places like restaurants and shopping centres. 

But the trend reversed during mid-October to December 2021, when movement to retail and recreation spots overtook the movement to workplaces. 

Going to the workplace may be a response to official mandates, but visits to recreational spots are completely voluntary, indicating a greater level of confidence among people to step out. It may just be a question of convenience as well, with several employees blaming time-consuming commute for not wanting to return. 

"A small minority of employees has referenced time spent in commute as well as the nature of their roles-being such that they can be delivered remotely-as reasons to not come back to office," says Tata Consumer Products (TCP) Global CHRO Amit Chincholikar. 

He adds that most requests are not so much around working from their home town but about flexibility in schedules. 

Deloitte's Nathan also mentions commute timings and the effort and costs involved in relocation from home towns as key concerns employees have about returning to office. 

Talent solutions provider Careernet's CEO & Co-founder Anshuman Das says his firm surveyed 2,000 employees and found a 50-50 split of those wanting to return to work and those who don't. 

Among those who don't, time and money saved on travel and stay were prominent reasons, he says. "And they are okay to work from 9 am to 9 pm with small breaks in between to attend to their life, which they can't do while at office full time." 

Also read: Infosys founder Narayana Murthy says WFH not suitable for India, wants IT employees back in office

Also read: Is WFH finally over? Corporates become future ready with hybrid work model